Units are known for the sterile, and in particular for the aseptic cold filling of bottles or similar containers with a liquid product, for example with a liquid product that spoils easily, for example milk products, and also for the subsequent, again sterile or aseptic cold, closing of the containers. The bottles or containers are, in that case, transported in a sterile chamber during supply to the filling machine, during filling, during transport from the filling machine to a downstream closing machine and during closing. When the unit is running, i.e. on filling and closing, the chamber is flushed with or exposed to a sterile gas and/or vapor-forming medium and from time to time, i.e. within predetermined cleaning and disinfecting cycles or intervals, it is treated with a cleaning and/or disinfection and/or sterilization medium.
Known units suffer from the particular disadvantage that, with the closing machine in question, all of the equipment of that machine and, in particular, the closing tools provided at the closing positions, are arranged in the sterile chamber. This means that the construction of those closing tools, at least at their outer surfaces and/or regions, must also be produced from a material that is resistant to corrosion by the cleaning and disinfection means, for example from stainless steel. Furthermore, the outer surfaces of the closing tools have functionally necessary recesses, slits, indentations, etc. that germs like to colonize. As a result, it has been necessary to use large amounts of cleaning and disinfection materials to clean and disinfect the sterile chamber in the closing machine zone.